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The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

theaviationgeekclub.com

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Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#41

Post by tzs »

ranger_danger wrote: post #22
macintux wrote: post #4

SR-71 stories are legendary. Here's another classic from the same site: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-tells-...

apparently some air traffic controllers disagree with this story being possible: https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/fbt4rq/la_speed_che...

The dude on Reddit says:

> They could hear ATC but not other aircraft, because civilian aircraft are on VHF frequencies, military on UHF, and anybody above 60,000 feet (like the SR-71's) were on a separate, center-wide UHF frequency so they wouldn't have to switch frequencies constantly. So the SR-71 and F-18 pilots couldn't have heard those other aircraft requesting groundspeed, or heard each other for that matter.

The SR-71 had at least 5 radios, according to the flight manual [1].

• COMNAV-50 UHF. It had two of these, one in the front cockpit and one in the aft cockpit.

• AN/ARC-186(V). This one covers the civilian aircraft frequencies (and a bit more such as the 2 meter ham band).

• 618-T HF. This covered AM and SSB on 2-30 MHz in 1 KHz increments.

• AN/ARC-190(V). Another HF radio, covering 2-30 MHz in 100 Hz increments.

It was a spy plane. Listening in on other aircraft and ATC would help it carry out its mission, so of course it is going to have plenty of radios.

[1] https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#43

Post by mixmastamyk »

late2part wrote: post #24
mixmastamyk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He had a ranch in Agoura, near the SSFL, which might have had an impact on them.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=SSFL

Also this documentary was made recently:

https://www.inthedarkofthevalley.com/

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#45

Post by marai2 »

serf wrote: post #38
buryat wrote: post #36

SR-71 speed check One time we were going fast a small plane got on the radio and said "how fast am i going" the tower said "you are going fast" and then a bigger plane got on the radio and said "haha i think i am going faster how fast am i going" and the tower said "you are going a little faster" and then a jet fighter was going really fast and talked like a really cool guy and said "hey there, I sound like a cool gu…

you know how some people have a talent for story-telling, painting vivid landscapes and heroic deeds with words and prose? you have a talent for story-telling, but sort of from the opposite end of the spectrum; you sucked all of the heroism and bravado out of the story without actually misrepresenting any of the facets of it. nice work.

I'm sorry but this is the funniest comment I've read on HN!

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#46

Post by cyberferret »

A friend gave me a copy of Brian Shul's book (where this story came from) decades ago, and it is pretty much my most favourite coffee table book I've ever owned. I believe it went out of print, and I remember seeing copies on eBay for around $3000 at one stage, but I believe they were talking about doing a reprint, so there goes my retirement plan! :)

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#47

Post by loser777 »

buryat wrote: post #36

SR-71 speed check One time we were going fast a small plane got on the radio and said "how fast am i going" the tower said "you are going fast" and then a bigger plane got on the radio and said "haha i think i am going faster how fast am i going" and the tower said "you are going a little faster" and then a jet fighter was going really fast and talked like a really cool guy and said "hey there, I sound like a cool gu…

Plagiarism: https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/8ya8v4/sr71_spee...

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#48

Post by samstave »

A while back the SR71 ops (flight?) manual was posted to HN...

There was a particular comment which I think was on like page 69 or so...

"Do not attempt any turns above 70,000 feet; drop to 70,000 feet first then do your turn with a turn radi of ~2miles....

Do not fly above 90,000 feet without prior authorization"

---

Or some-such... so the thing was known to fly over 90K feet - but you needed approval to do so...

Nine-teen SIXTY WHAT?

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#49

Post by jacquesm »

userbinator wrote: post #25
mmaunder wrote: post #9

Stick and Rudder is the best read out there if you want an intuitive pilots understanding of what happened here. It unpacks angle of attack from a pilots perspective rather than using engineer speak. At that speed the control surfaces of the Blackbird would have had very little effect which is incredibly scary as you’re approaching a stall low and slow. They’d need big deflections to keep her straight and it would ha…

A similar thing happens with boats --- the rudder only has an effect when water is moving past it, so it's more difficult to maneuver when moving slowly.

Maneuvering a regular (stern) driven boat without a bow screw at low speeds is super hard. There is this 10 year old kid at a marina near where I live that handles all of the rental boats, I've seen them do this in absolutely impossible situations with a grace and skill that really blows my mind, it's like the boat is on rails and does exactly what they want it to do. Even the box shaped 'party boats', and those are really next to impossible to move around in predictable ways.
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